tennis. >> reporter: jeanne moos -- >> security! >> reporter: -- cnn -- >> they got to start this on golf now. >> reporter: -- new york. >> remember, you can always follow what's going on in "the situation room." you can get my tweets at twitter.com/wolfblitzercnn. also on facebook, facebook.com/cnnsituationroom to become a fan. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "john king usa" starts right now. >> thanks, wolf. good evening, everyone. i've covered politics for 25 years now. 22 of them based in our nation's capital. which more and more these days might be better described as our nation's circus. what happened under the capitol dome today would make much more sense under the big tent. elephants donkeys and clowns of all political persuasions. in the house, the democratic leadership decided it will adjourn without deciding what to do about the bush tax cuts that expire at the end of this year. the leadership knows what it

wants to do. if it tried hard enough, it probably could get the votes to do it. the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans expire and extend those for making $250,000 a year or less. but a good number of vulnerable democrats don't want to take the vote before the election because republicans would call it a vote to raise taxes. so the leadership punted. senate democrats had already decided to dodge the tax debate until after the elections. but what was once called the world's greatest deliberative body was in session today. notice i didn't say "at work." this is not the democracy you were taught in civics class. >> i ask you that the senate proceed to counter number 119 hr-38, the crane conservation act. >> the senator from -- >> i object. >> the marine mammal rescue assistant act. >> mr. president, i object. >> the great cats and rare --

>> i object. >> the shark conservation act. >> i object. >> the southern sea otter recovery and research act. >> i object. >> if that makes you mad, maybe it doesn't, but if it does, remember, you get to decide who works here. in 34 days, you decide whether big change will be the big theme of a third consecutive election cycle. will your votes change the gridlock that is washington? or will they perhaps make it worse? let's talk it over. amy goodman is the host of the television radio show "democracy now." er erick erickson, redstate.com. here in washington, robert trainen, the host of "roll call tv." and senior cnn political analyst gloria borger. amy goodman, i want to go to you first, because there is so much frustration among democrats outside of washington that we had a big election in 2006 that gave us control of congress, those democrats would say then we elected this president in

2008. why can't they do what we elected them to do? >> i mean this is a very important question. in fact, the one thing they did do today, james droga 9/11 act which will help firefighters, emergency workers, cops. james died in 2006. first police officer to have his illnesses tied to the toxic plume at 9/11. it's astounding that it took this long to pass, with all of the people who are suffering here in new york. and yet it was done almost entirely on partisan lines. the republicans didn't vote for the firefighters or the cop, the emergency workers, about, what, 15 of them. this is what it's come to. it is frightening. so much needs to be done to care for the people and every which way. and it's not happening right now. >> erik, wasn't you to come into the conversation, i want you to come into the conversation. first, john paboehner, the hous

republican leader. he couldn't contain his outrage over the fact they punt until after the election, this vote on tax cuts. listen. >> how any member can vote to adjourn and punt this into a lame duck session i think is putting your election above the needs of your constituents. >> now, erick, can we go back to the record? do you think at all in the last two year, maybe once, twice, two, three, four dozen time, the democrats have punted a lot of big decision, but the republican, have they ever put the election above the needs of their constituents? >> that's politics. i'm sorry, i'm still hung up on the fact you've been doing this for 25 year, since before i was in high school, john, sorry, hung up on that one. you know, the issue here is listen to the list of things harry reid went through. the great cats and canids act, the seal act.

i'm glad coburn objected. congress generally does nothing. >> it's not all -- you can list those bills and we can read them all and maybe we'd like some. but it's not all inconsequential legislation. >> right -- >> there would be 90 votes -- there would be 90 votes probably to pass a food safety votes, 80 votes to pass payments to african-americans in native american farmers who for decades were essentially screwed by their government that gave different subsidies to white farmers. these things are all held up because both parties think it's all about the elections and not about the people. >> oh, very much so. and that happens. the republicans have done it. both sides have attacked the other. think the last time i saw polling on the lame duck section it was rasmussen and great fear about what else would happen in the lake duck session. this gives the republicans another thing to go out with in addition to the tax cultts. >> you spent a long time working

on capitol hill. you're a republican. have you ever seen it like this, essentially breathing is out of order if it comes from somebody of the other party right now? >> not as bad as this. partisan gridlock at its worst. the frustrating thing is there are millions of people at home living paycheck to paycheck that absolutely not only want but deserve some type of a tax cut. the fact of the matter is we have republicans and democrats, but primarily the democrat, not because of bipartisan background but because they're the ones in power that have refused to put the best interest of the constituents first as opposed to their political gain. that's the unfortunate thing here. >> you know, the tax cut issue itself, i mean, it came up because these are going to expire, but the whole notion of what to do about the tax cuts was a huge political issue to begin with. it ended with this kind of whimper. democrats had a billing meg mee about it, trying to decide whether it was in their own best interest to establish a fight where you had class warfare essentially and raise that old

issue again, and then they punt on the vote. why? because maybe they don't have the votes for it -- >> gloria -- >> they don't want to twist any arms, but that's the point. why can't -- i know this is silly but why can't on a big issue like tax cuts that affects everysingle person out there watching? another big issue, whether it's medicare, social security, education, why can't they have a debate and then have a vote and see who wins? >> because they've abdicated responsibility here. the closer you get to an election, as you well know and you well know, the more they abdicate their responsibility and i think that's what we're seeing on both sides of the aisle. because right now it's all about getting elected. by the way, after this election, i hate to say this, it's not likely to get any better. in fact it could get worse. >> -- even more, it's about power and being weak-kneed. weak-kneed politicians afraid to stand up and say, i may lose the election in 30 days from now but

i want to do what's right for the people. it's also about power because they're drunk and addicted to power. >> the president was out in iowa today. he knew this tax cut debate was bubbling up here in washington. he was at a backyard event trying to talk about the economy. his point of the tax cut debate is the republicans want to say, extend all the bush tax cuts but they don't want to put on the table in the president's view enough to offset the $700 billion hit that would take on the deficit. let's listen to the president. >> we can't pretend that they're short cuts, that we can cut our taxes, completely have all the benefits that we want, and balance the budget, and not make any tough choices. that's -- you know, i think more than anything, the message i want to be communicating to the american people. >> amy, very passionate president last night on the college campus. much more sober president there. he's essentially trying to make the point out in the country that, look, we're going to have a campaign and the republicans

are going to say oh, the democrats want to raise taxes. he is right on this point, that most americans have actually seen a tax cut over the past two years. many of them probably just don't feel that way because of all the ads they're seeing on television. >> it really astonishes me that the democrats can't figure out a way to explain why it is that they don't want -- want what the highest, the 1% of americans who make the most amount of money, that at this point in time, in dealing with the deficit, that they should not get a tax cut. but that most americans, more than 95% of americans, will. why is this so hard to understand, when people are losing their homes, their health insurance? when people are in such dire straits? the fact that the republicans have been able to frame this debate so well is not a comment really on the republicans, it's a comment on how -- how problematic the democrats -- the problems democrats have in,

expressing basic truths. >> it's a great point. when clinton won the presidency, he campaigned much as obama did saying he was going to come to office and raise taxes on the rich. clinton looked people in the eye and say, i'm going to raise taxes on the rich. this administration seems shy about saying this is what we're going to do. >> yes, they're very shy about it because they know when you talk about taxes you're really in the republican wheelhouse. it's easy to say this is going to be the greatest tax increase in american history, which is what republicans were saying. and i think their problem also is obama had a promissory note he gave to the american people which is "bipartisanship" and guess what. >> robert, hold the thought. when we come back, the president says he doesn't get caught up in the cable chatter but the same president says one thing about one cable network and his spokesman says something very different about another. what's destructive and what's invaluable? stay right there.

sometimes you feel sad to be left out of a big debate. this is not one of those

sometimes. in an interview with "rolling stone" president obama voiced the opinion that fox news is a destructive force in our society. on the other hand, obama spokesman bill burton said the president believes msnbc commentators keith olbermann and racial msh rachel maddow provide an invaluable service. according to the president this is destructive. >> everything getting pushed through congress, including this health care billing are transforming america. and they are all driven by president obama's thinking on one idea, reparations. >> he's bankrupting the country. he is the most incompetent president to ever hold that office. >> and, again, according to the white house, this is an invaluable service. >> what we're seeing out of this governor of new jersey is just go to the money, cut whoever you have to cut, there is no ramification for any of this

because he's a cold-hearted fat slob. >> in short, in scott brown, we have an irresponsible homophobic racist reactionary tea bagger against politicians with whom he disagrees. >> let's check back with our panel on their thoughts on how the president defines friend and foe. why do you think the president of the united states -- the president went after fox in an interview with "rolling stone," it was his spokesman, bill burton who drew a delineation, saying when the president says he's mad at the left, it's not with msnbc, it's more with people in the blogosphere. >> one of the striking things in the interview, it was talking about fox news world view. mr. president, a whole lot of people watch that station. in fact, take glenn beck, for example, a couple weeks ago, more people were watching glenn beck than any other show on cable at that time. if you got a problem with that world view, you got a problem

with a massive a. american people. he may not like that. this is the great thing about our democracy. we have something called the first amendment. people can watch fox. people can watch cnn. people can watch msnbc or none of the above. at my house, we typically are watching disney or nick jr. >> nick jr. so you're surprised i'm old, you're surprised i'm wat ed youg nick jr. gloria, what happened to this? this is the president of the united states, may 1st, university of michigan, giving the commencement speech. trying to tell americans of all political persuasions "listen to each other." >> if we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we become more polarized, more set in our ways. >> i think he's describing what's happening in this country right now. >> i think he's right. in that commencement speech, he's right. >> but right now he has a tough midterm election and is playing

base politics. he's trying to get his voters out to vote. and if he's got to talk about fox news, he'll talk about fox news, because his base doesn't really watch fox news. his base would prefer another network. >> i'm shocked. >> but there's two sides of that coin. the more he talks about fox news, i bet you tonight and tomorrow night, fox news ratings will go up and talk about rallying his base, the republican base going to get rallied more. this is red meat to both sides. mathematically, fox news, as erick mentioned, has much more red meat on their side than the democrats do. >> amy, i also want to pick up on a point we talked about last night. after the president's speech on the campus, we talked about why -- the vice president says the left is whining and the president says it would be irresponsible for any liberal democrat not to get out and vote. there's a lot of commentary about this on the blowings go sphere by people who see themselves set up. she says, notice nobody actually

running for office is scolding them like a bunch of children. no, this isn't about gotv, get out the vote. it's about setting up a narrative for who will take the blame for a disastrous election. once again, the white house doesn't care if they make matters worse in order to deflect responsibility from obama. is that's what's happening here, amy? >> well, i think it's very clear that the white house is in trouble, right? a number of candidates don't want president obama, though they'd love michelle obama, to come to their rescue and they'll take other candidates, because of, really, what we're seeing now in washington, so little getting done. and i think right now we need to have a big discussion. the media needs to serve as a forum for that discussion. in terms of journalism, i think it's our responsibility as journalists to hold those in power accountable, whoever they are, the democrats, the republicans. we are not supposed to cover for power. we're supposed to cover power. we're not supposed to -- we are supposed to be the fourth estate

and not for the state. and that's a really important tenet that all journalists should remember, we're not supposed to be cozying up to power. >> do you take offense when he says things like this, this is from glen greenwald writing in salon.com. he says, they're apathetic because they see what has happened in their own lives over the past two years and see little reason to work for those who have been in power during that time. fair? >> that's right, he's talking about the democrats. he's talking about the republicans. what we really need to talk about is the amount of money that's being poured into all these elections that really captures democrats and republicans together. some can call it one corporate party. i think mainstream america is really being left out at this point. >> i got to go unfortunately. thank you. we got to take a break. a lot more to come. when we come back, an interview we tried to bring you last night

until the live event, the president on campus took much of our time. bo biden. the son of the vice president. he was going to run for that senate seat. is he kicking himself he didn't get into that race? host: could switching to geico really

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns

for the latest political news you need to know right now. >> a new cnn/"time"/opinion research poll indicates alaska's senate race is a dead heat. miller's 38% lead over senator and write-in candidate murkowski is within the sampling error. florida's three-way senate race where rubio is clearly ahead. in california, boxer has opened up a nine-point lead over fiori fiorina. democrat brown is ahead of republican whitman in the governor's race. whitman's campaign says there's no merit to the allegation she ex-plotted her former housekeeper because the woman was an illegal immigrant. she's now represented by celebrity attorney gloria allred. >> it was a nightmare and the way that nicky was treated by her employer, miss whitman, cause heard to feel exploited, disrespected, humiliated and

emotionally and financially abused. >> whitman's campaign says the former housekeeper lied about her legal status and labels the allegations as the politics of personal destruction. the house keeper trap. how many times has that happened in american politics? >> let's talk about that. jessica yellin, dana bash. whitman is running this campaign, in a tough race, in a state that has traditionally been democratic. the last thing she wants to talk about in the final weeks of the campaign is this but -- >> all the documentation that we had said that she was legal. she had a 1099 on file with the employment agency, driver's license, social security card, we had no reason to believe that she was not legal. no one could have been more stunned than i was when she came to us on that saturday in june and said i'm not here legally. >> at the moment, jess, she said/she said. we'll probably have more back and forth on this one. i think the bigger point is a candidate who is trying to run

on i'm the right person to fix a bad economy is now talking about something different. >> it goes to both her immigration position, which is let's crack down on employers who hire illegals. if it's so hard to verify in your own home, what does this say about the whole policy? she says you need a tougher e-verify system. and brown has hit her on credibility. this is the narrative they're harping on. it's another attack on her. you know, she spent the entire day answering questions about this, not what she wants to be doing. >> i remember early in the clinton administration zoeier baird was the nominee for attorney general and that one became a big issue, nanny taxes i guess we called them back in those days. do women get treated differently on this issue than men? >> i think historically there's no question that women who have had -- people who have had this issue tend to be women. perhaps it's because women have to deal with nannies. but i know, just because we know a lot of people in this town, men and women, people who think that there is any chance that they would run for office or sit before a senate committee to be

confirmed for a certain post, they try to make darn sure that all of their -- all of their records are in order that this doesn't happen. if there was a chance she was going to run, you have to think maybe she's telling the truth when she said she actually did ask -- >> the campaign released lots of paperwork. the 1099 form, the irs form where this housekeeper did say "i'm legal" and the documents show that. >> if they had them proves -- they're not surprised this issue came up, they might be surprised just when. let's move on. there's a rush in this town by the people who are sent here to do the people's business, to get home, to try to convince the people to send them back to do the people's business. except they don't seem to be doing a lot of the people's business. you were wandering the halls of the hill, trying to get an explanation, why are you in such a hurry to go home? let's listen. >> everybody wants to get home, everybody needs to go home. >> you said everybody wants to get home, why? >> because they think they can do more good at home than they can sitting here.

>> i'm always more comfortable being at home, especially now making the case for why they should give me another shot at it. think when i'm not there it's easier to say things that i can't defend. >> it's like we're in the wizard of oz in washington and when we're -- we're pulling the curtain back on the wizard when we go back home. >> they're just hoping the house doesn't fall on them. >> do i say ding-dong the witch is dead or pay no attention to the man behind the curten? >> i don't want to work. >> in fairness, the other thing these democrats were saying is, you know, as you can imagine, they were blaming the republicans, in particular, the senate, for stop everything they wanted to do, even in this small -- short period of time they've been back in washington so that's why they're going to leave. they're leaving a week early. they're going to work tonight to do what they have do, pass some money to keep the government running so they can leave early. >> a continuing resolution to keep the government going. not a document called a budget.

not an actual budget. >> not a single appropriations bill this year. which is fascinating because congress has actually done a lot. a lot of different bills have been passed. not all of them were very popular. they weren't able to do the appropriations bill. was talking to a couple people off the hill today who said the reason they really didn't want to do the appropriations bill because the more spending bills you parks the more people talk about the tax and spend congress and you just remind people of how much money they're spending. difficult position. democrats just say, let's just come back in the -- >> exactly, let's get real. the reason why everybody wants to leave, particularly the democrats, is because they realize every second they're here does them more harm than good. whether it is potentially passing something that can be used against them or not passing something their constituents want them to pass. there's such anger at washington. that's why they just want to get out of dodge. you know, it's -- nobody says otherwise. i mean, it is what it is. >> we will have this lame duck session after the congress. a lot of the members will not be

back in january. almost whoever loses in november will be back here. the only difference is the candidates for the temporary senate seats. there's an illinois, florida and delaware senate seat, whoever wins those seats held by temporary appointee, the winner automatically gets to come. senate will look a little different for the lame duck. they'll do the tax cut debate then, what else ? >> just to show you how polarizing even leaving town is there's a vote in the house to adjourn. they have to do that to adjourn. that almost didn't pass. why? because republicans were making a stink saying, we've got to pass an extension for tax cuts before we leave. democrats didn't want to do that because it's too divisive in their own party. democrats almost didn't pass the motion to adjourn because almost 40 democrats voted with republicans saying we want to do tax cuts first so it just shows you how everything they do has -- is hard and difficult, which is why they want to get out of here. >> it's all about them, not about, say, the 16.5 million

americans who are unemployed or underemployed or -- >> yeah, i mean, the other two things, just to answer the question of what i've heard, probably an omnibus spending bill, a great big, you know, catch-all, kitchen sink thing, this is after the election, maybe the sta.t.a.r.t. treaty o something bizarre like that, and that's about it. a lot of concerns won't get addressed. you have to remember and say they've done a lot this year. >> the voters are angry with washington. these guys are in a box. guys and gals are in a box. for all those viewers out there who are so angry at washington, if you want them doing their job back here, you've got to lighten up on them a little bit. they came here to try to serve at least. >> i think she's trying to say, you sent the group that's here now. 34 days, you get to send the group that comes next. when we come back, one on one with the vice president's son. why didn't he run for senate in delaware? when dad comes home what do they talk about at the dinner table? .

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this time last year, a lot of people figured our next guest would be on his way to keeping his father's senate seat in the family. he joins me now to go one on one. at the time, the democratic attorney general of delaware people thought with the family name you would be a good candidate in that race. mike castle was considered the republican favorite at that point. when you look now at christine

o'donnell as the republican candidate, you must be kicking yourself. >> no, not at all. this is delaware's seat. i got off the plane of iraq and got put in my lap a very important case. i had one choice to make, to finish my job as attorney general. i'm not kicking myself. i'm trying to go out there and stir it up and do everything cane to make sure chris kuhns becomes our candidate. >> she ran against your dad once. know christine o'donnell at all? >> i've known christine for a while. i campaigned in 2006. so i went to a lot of candidate forums throughout the state with her. she then ran against my dad in '08. look, christine knows what she's about, knows what she's believes, and she should be taken seriously. my party's taking her seriously and we're out there beating the bushes, making sure 47% of the state which are democrats turn

out to vote to elect chris kuhns. >> another person watching closingly is mike castle. we had a new poll that showed kuhns up in that race. if you're mike castle on the outside, looking at that race, viable as a write-in candidate? >> i don't know. i take the congressman at his word that he's giving it some thought. gosh, i wouldn't try to put myself in his shoes or in his head. this is a man who served our state honorably. the good news is we're going to -- take back a republican-held seat. >> your dad, sometimes he says it himself, sometimes his tongue gets out a little ahead of the brain. he was in new hampshire yesterday. he essentially was lecturing the democratic base, saying, stop whining and get out to vote. look at the other guys because if they win this election you'll

be even more mad. what is it your dad says when you guys are sitting down for a beer or cup of coffee when he says what gets him in trouble? >> my dad's a great dad, first. what my dad's trying to do what i'm trying to do, much smaller level, that is, make sure the democrats that elected obama and biden get out to vote. we want to make sure they know the stakes are high. change is voted for in 2008 by overwhelming numbers can be voted for again and needs to be continued and pursued -- >> what is this 20-month experience been like for him? because i do know your dad. he wanted to be president in 2008 of course and then he takes the job as number two. i don't mean this as a criticism. he was the chairman of a committee for a long time in the congress. it's hard sometimes to be number

two especially -- the case for afghanistan, for example, he had one course of advice and the president picked something else. how does he deal with this? >> he believes in the agenda that the president set forth as a candidate, now as president. he loved being in the senate. so there's been little adjustments you've observed. but he is completely and totally committed to this administration's goals. what i've seen, observed, is a vice president who is completely committed to the united states. providing his opinion and advice about any given issue the president asks him about. >> when he comes home, does he talk at all about washington? people look forward to 2012 and say, if the president's a little weak, he's going to have to push biden aside and bring in hillary clinton. >> you're not going to believe this, but you might, knowing me

a little bit. most of the drama doesn't come to our dinner table. we talk about what our kids are doing. my sister. we talk about the family and what's going on there. i've made it a kind of rule of not talking about what i talk to my dad about privately. but i'll share this with you. most of the time, it's not about politics. >> if the obama/biden ticket wins a second term, will you dad run for president? >> he's completely committed to making sure democrats are elected and this administration wins in 2012 but most importantly brings the change that they set out to do, cold days in iowa, and that is bring back jobs and restore the middle class. >> that's called punting is what we call that answer in politics. >> there's the punt. i, i, i -- you know, you have to ask him that. >> a few months before you made your decision not to run for senate you had a mild stroke. how you doing? >> i'm doing great. i take an aspirin a day.

i'm back to work full speed. the doctors tell me everybody over 40 years old should be on an aspirin, i am. i got great care at the hospital in philadelphia and i had a wife who took a semester of nursing and was smart enough when i wasn't feeling right one morning to call the ambulance. i got a great wife and a lot of prayers that allowed me to be sitting here now. >> do we get a what's next for beau biden? >> a long time ago, anytime you have plans, life intervenes. so my plan is to work as hard as i can to get re-elected. be the best dad i can possibly be. and let the future kind of unfold. >> beau biden, thanks. some good advice there. for any man over 40, you should listen to it. back in the '90s, you often heard about soccer moms. so what's a walmart mom? [ male announcer ] yo are a businpro.

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i'm going to shock you a little bit here. republican pollster neil new house, democratic pollster majory omara, they've actually worked together on something. interesting new research into what they call walmart moms. you might ask, what's a walmart mom? first, they have children at home under the age of 18. they represent somewhere in the ballpark of 15% to 17% of the national electorate. they shop at walmart at least once a month. back in 2008 they backed president obama narrowly. at the moment, a majority, 52%,

say they disapprove of the president's performance. why do they matter in the 2010 midterms? 44% of walmart moms think the economy's getting worse at the moment. 51% say they plan to vote republican for congress at the moment. 33% say they'll vote for a democrat. this is important, just 31%, 3 in 10 walmart moms, say they're interested in the midterm elections. so majrgie and neil, can i take from that maybe a lot of them just won't vote? >> i think there's interest between interest in voting and whether they feel the outcome of the election affects them. our finding shows these walmart moms feel the impact of the policies and the election affects them personally. we saw that in focus groups where we talked to walmart moms in three different cities. they're feeling the affect of economic policy. i think there's an interest in feeling engaged in the election and in terms of what we think of

politics and feeling the effect -- >> the other thing, john, these women are so focused on their daily lives, on their kitchen table issue, that they are really -- they're not paying much attention now to national politics. think they're important this election because they're going to be late deciders. they have not yet, you know, foully come down on one side or the other side and think they'll make up their minds last two or three weeks in the election and could make a difference. >> in the '90s we talked about soccer moms and their importance in the key suburbs around the united states. you call these women walmart mom independen s. this research was done, commissioned by walmart, zploshth. >> we actually a identified this group last year as a key swing group. and really kind of followed it throughout this year. walmart helped pay for these focus groups and the surveys. it's just fascinating. >> i want you to listen to joanne, the founder of punditmom.com, and she agrees with you that women, especially

moms, are critical constituency. what she doesn't like is the label. >> they've really become influencers beyond what they used to be in just their neighborhoods and with their friends. so it's really not a big surprise that the candidates are really interested in these moms and hopefully they will continue to be and maybe they won't have to come up with shorthand names for us in the future. >> so she's taking -- >> i don't agree. i don't see these women as power brokers. i see these women as -- i mean, their goals in life right now are to put gas in their gas tank, put food on the table, you know, take care of their kid's education, and survive from one day to the next. these are not the power brokers. they may be power brokers in the election but they're not power brokers in their community i don't think. >> the focus group, it seems pretty clear reading your reports, that these women feel the economic anxiety in a more personal way, is that the right way to put it? >> absolutely. it's not just about the fighting

in washington or one plan or this plan or one tax or another tax. it's about making sure they can send their kids to college. whether their husband's losing his job or whether they're getting a new job whether they can afford where they're living and how they feel about their mortgage and their bank. it's very personal, very day to day. they're incredibly swing and evenly divided in terms of how they view the electorate. >> in the focus group, not a single voter -- we did three focus groups outside of philadelphia, outside of st. louis, outside of denver, not a single voter mentioned the word "earmarks." >> one person mentioned the word "tea party." they're focused on things closer to home for them. i want you to listen, mary is this woman's name, president obama met her today in iowa. her son is a college graduate, can't find a job. campaigned for obama in '08. does this meet the definition? >> he's still struggling to find

a full-time job. he and many of his friends are struggling. they're losing their hope, which was a message that you inspired them with. could you speak to that, how you would speak to the young men and women in our country who are struggling to find a job, and speak to that message of hope? >> we didn't ask her if she's been in a walmart in the last month but that sounds pretty familiar if you read through your focus group reports. >> yeah, absolutely. i think another thing that i think you can see in that particular event is that when people are talking about the economy and dissatisfaction, whether it's with obama or the way things are going, it doesn't mean that they blame -- we saw in the focus group, it doesn't mean they're blaming the president. it's just -- they just feel so personally wrapped up still in the economic downturn and they say -- they volunteer no one would be able to recover from where we were a few years ago so quickly. so i think people can have those different kinds of views at the same time. they're not inconsistent. >> if you're a candidate out there, i only got a couple seconds left in a second or two, how do you sway them?

>> you talk to them about kitchen table issues. you can't talk to them necessarily about what's going on in washington. they are so alien nated from washington and disenchanted. you have to talk about issues that affect their daily lives. >> thanks for coming in. fascinating research. 34 more days. when we come back, the top political stories of the day. and obama's work on the internet was off the charts. at the moment, not trending. we'll show you. [ male announcer ] at ge capital, we're out there every day with clients like jetblue -- financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah.

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the latest political news. >> president obama is back at the white house after his four-state campaign swing. tomorrow, he has scheduled an oval office meeting with democratic congressional leaders. former president carter spending another night in a cleveland hospital where doctors just put out a statement saying his stomach distress was caused by a viral infection which is

clearing up. at a meeting of the president's debt reduction commission, co-chairman alan simpson who's complained that social security is like a milk cow took note of the criticism he and others have been getting in the blows go sphere. blogossphere. >> any person who uses an anonymous blog, say it quite clearly, is a jerk or a bonehead or a boob. just a personal opinion. >> what's not to like about the anonymous attacks on the internet? >> right. alan simpson has come under a lot of heat. you know, i'm not taking side, but he's a colorful national treasure, shall we say that? when the president gave the big speech last night, we got to thinking, remember back in '08, he used the internet to connect with so many of the young voters. now it's become organizing for america, the president's political arm. that's what it looks like.

so what about page views? how's it doing? this is back in 2008 at the height of the campaign. it was way up here. the percentage of traffic on the internet. it was way up here, 50 million hits a day averaging back in the '08 campaign. look that the drop into '09. a couple blips up but pretty much flat-lined way down here, a very small percentage of the traffic on the internet for organizing for america at the moment. when the president's been out campaigning, yesterday with that big speech, up 80%. they ran a big event to say, come see it online. over the past week, it's up 22% from its recent average. last 30 days, it's down po% 30%. the president's site not generating much traffic. those who do come to organizing for america, where do they go next? about 38% go to google. maybe they see something on site and they want to search for more information. some go to facebook to talk it over with friends. only about 3% go to the white house website. i found that interesting. i thought some people would go to the political arm then the

white house for the official statement but apparently they're going online to chat it over with friends or get a bit more information. >> from something other than the source. >> something other than the quiet source. one of our favorite source, pete dominique. he went south. look at him down there in the south. he's got some questions for me. to follow my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web, and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email. i love my grandma. i love you grandma. grandma just makes me happy. ♪ to know, know, know you grandma is the bestest. the total package. grandpa's cooooooooool. way cool.

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our offbeat reporter pete dominick is often on the streets of new york but maybe he's been summoned to the principal's office down there in atlanta. >> i got a little bit lost and i want to share something with our viewers tonight. the main democratic group, they posted this video up of the republican gubernatorial candidate paul la page. take a look. >> as your governor, you're gonna be seeing a lot of me on the front page saying governor lepage tells obama to go to hell. >> wow. is there any precedent for that? so much for attacking policy and attacking the president himself. that made me a little uncomfortable. >> it's just not ne